I like how Scorsese isn't ashamed of violence, especially in this. Sometimes he presents it matter-of-factly, and others, such as Leo kicking the shit out of the two goons, he actually ups the music and has fun with it.

It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

unfortunately i think the film is probably too popcorn (fun/awesome) for the oscars. most likely they'll be looking at more serious minded crap. i hope i'm wrong.

No, you're right. Jack Nicholson will get a supporting nod with no win. That will be all. I guess it's possible that Scorsese will get nominated without the picture being nominated, just because of everyone always saying that they oughta give him one. But he will not win. Same with the screenplay.

I like how Scorsese isn't ashamed of violence, especially in this. Sometimes he presents it matter-of-factly, and others, such as Leo kicking the shit out of the two goons, he actually ups the music and has fun with it.

Yeah, I laughed pretty hard at, "She fell funny."

Though I would say that the blood and brains, when they fly out, do look digital for some of the shots.

people seem to be going bananas for this movie. i don't know if its a regional thing, but facebook accounts, myspace accounts, all have been altered to include "The Departed" under favorite movies. non movie lovers around here are eating it up: "sickest movie ever!;" "SICK!" "Nicholson was crazy in that movie!" etc. (its also high school, but every adult i've talked to thats seen it is also glowing about)

I expect it to do well at the box office next week based on a good word of mouth.

I thought it was better (i.e. more enjoyable) than Gangs of New York and The Aviator. Still I agree with Christopher Doyle's assesment of the current state of US mainstream film given that Scorsese feels the need to remake an Asian Actioner in an effort to continue his Oscar pandering.

Still I agree with Christopher Doyle's assesment of the current state of US mainstream film given that Scorsese feels the need to remake an Asian Actioner in an effort to continue his Oscar pandering.

GreenCine Thelma Schoonmaker interview:

It's a reimagining of Infernal Affairs?

Marty read a wonderful script by Bill Monahan, a Boston Irish-American. He said, "This is great, the dialogue is fantastic and it's really interesting." He's always been fascinated by the corruption of police departments. Then he found out that it was based on or inspired by Infernal Affairs, and it's a real problem because neither of us have seen the movie and we're not going to see it until this is finished. It's all about character and I think it's different. People tell us it's different. I don't know!

Still I agree with Christopher Doyle's assesment of the current state of US mainstream film given that Scorsese feels the need to remake an Asian Actioner in an effort to continue his Oscar pandering.

i really dont see what part of this film is oscar pandering. its not an oscar type film at all except it has a huge name cast. if its up for ANY nominations it'd be a miracle.

Depends on how weak this year is for good films. The Oscars have been able to bend their focus a little bit in order to reward talent. I have not seen the Departed, but I do think any Scorsese movie these days is viable for atleast a directorial nomination. Scorsese is in the same boat as Paul Newman. The academy wanted to award Newman after 7 or so nominations, but he was always losing to stronger talent. Like in '82 when his masterful performance in The Verdict was topped by Ben Kingsley's Gandhi. Newman had to eventually win for a minor effort in a movie like The Color of Money. If its a weak year, I can see the academy rationalize almost any Scorsese film in order to finally reward him.

wow, it's been a while since xixax overrates something like this.The Departed is this year's "Lost in Translation."

or this years "The New World". if, you know, The New World had been any good.

I might as well throw in the towel. Not only am I an asshole, but I also think those three films are all brilliant. I guess I'm swimming upstream...they are all apparently quite overrated. That's disappointing.

The Departed is the best film I've seen in 2006. I think DiCaprio's performance deserves a little more respect for its understated effectiveness and conflict. It doesn't appear to stand out next to Nicholson's over-the-top bravado, but DiCaprio's Billy Costigan is arguably his finest work. Also, I don't hold Wahlberg in high regard, but his Sgt. Dignam was pitch perfect.

Virtually the only thing I didn't like was the rat-shot at the end. The point had already been made.

Exclusive Profile: MARTIN SCORSESE UNDERSTANDS THE IRISH & ENCOURAGES JACK NICHOLSON TO BE DANGEROUS IN THE DEPARTEDThe Academy Award nominated director speaks of a love of Hong Kong cinema, and some of his Irish filmmaker heroes. Source: iF Magazine

It’s a universally accepted belief that anything Martin Scorsese makes is worth watching, and his new film THE DEPARTED is no exception. THE DEPARTED is a remake of the Hong Kong thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS. Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have reset the locale to Boston. Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), who runs a highly specialized and secretive undercover unit, plucks Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) from the State Police trainees and asks him to infiltrate the organization of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Billy’s true identity is known only by Queenan and Queenan’s second-in-command Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg). What we know but they don’t is that the informant is Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a high-ranking officer who’s on the task force to find the traitor. His actual boss, Costello, is pressuring Colin to find out if there’s a cop planted in Costello’s ranks, while Billy is trying to figure out who Costello’s man is in the State Police.

Scorese has always had a connection to the Irish population of the Eastern Seaboard, showcased first in GANGS OF NEW YORK, and now with THE DEPARTED.

“I think that I've always felt a close affinity with the Irish particularly coming out of the same area in New York,” says the director. “Although, by the time the Italians had moved in, by the 1920's, early '30's most of the Irish had moved out of that neighborhood that I came from. That goes back to GANGS OF NEW YORK and stories about how the Irish helped create New York and America, the city itself, and don't forget that I do have a very strong love for Hollywood cinema and some of the greatest filmmakers to come out of Hollywood, the films I grew up on were by Irishmen – John Ford, Ralph Walsh and others.”

Surprisingly enough Scorsese didn’t see the original film INFERNAL AFFAIRS, that THE DEPARTED is based on, as a Hong Kong cinema flick. And, although he is fan of that genre of cinema, he would never have done his remake in the Hong Kong style.

“I didn't think of [INFERNAL AFFAIRS] as Hong Kong,” Scorsese explains. “I just reacted to what Bill [Monahan] put together in the script really. I liked the idea. Hong Kong cinema – once I saw John Woo's THE KILLER, you can't go near that. You can't even begin to. I mean, as far as myself as a filmmaker, that's taken. Our film has taken their culture and mixed everything together, and that was in 1988, '87 or '88. I remember another Hong Kong film that I had in the '70's by King Hu called A TOUCH OF ZEN, pictures like that I saw that kind of thing. There is a whole other thing going on there.”

For the director it was more about a culture and way of life that he wanted to put onto film, he says, “But really I was responding to the way Monahan put, I guess, a way of life, a way of thinking, an attitude, a cultural look at the world really, a very, very closed society – that's what I responded to, I think.”

What does an Academy Award winning director like Scorsese look for in a project, other than interesting elements that will draw him and an audience into the story; it seems it's all about trust.

“Being totally, whether I like it or not, drawn to stories that have to do with trust and betrayal,” he explains. “I found that I kept being drawn back to the script and to the project. So, as I say, it became something else.”

Of course, bringing someone like Jack Nicholson into the project had to create some new evolution in the script and in the work that was being done with the film. Scorsese is a director who has no problem changing a film by working with the actors and finding their characters through different input in their performances.

“It [Nicholson’s character] evolved and it evolved over a long process, a very long process,” says Scorsese. “I mean, since I've been making films I've enjoyed talking about the process of how the pictures got to be the way that they are between the writers, myself and the actors, but I've found over the years is that it gets misunderstood maybe.”

Scorsese concluded by stating just how much of a contribution Nicholson made to the picture with his character, and how much of special working relationship he has with the actor.

“Nicholson and I worked in a different way, but that again is something that is kind of a private situation,” he explains. “One would have to be a part of that process. It's something that as we developed it as a character that was a little different from what Bill had originally put in there, but basically we because we had decided at a certain point that the danger, the power of this man and the appearance of his slowly coming apart with such power – he has such power and yet he's falling apart, he's losing his mind. So it was the danger of that.”

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol